Happy Birthday

What a whirlwind of a day! My flights to Philly went quite smoothly, and I arrived to the airport without any trouble; however, once I met up with several other volunteers, things began to unravel a little bit. First, we waited on the wrong side to catch a shuttle to the hotel--not to mention at this point one of the girl's luggage at already been lost/not made it to Philly. Anyway, we were all under the impression that they continually ran a shuttle back and forth. Oops! We were wrong. So we finally figured out that we had to go call for a bus service to come pick us up, but that took way longer than it should have--not to mention that it took forever just to figure that out because everyone kept seeming to tell us the wrong information. Anyway, once we got the bus it was already 2:00 (remember I arrived at the airport at 12:00 and check-in ends at 3:00). We all thought that we would be fine on time except for that there were several other people in the van with us volunteers that caused us to take a very long and scenic path to our hotel. Luckily we were with some very nice locals that gave us an overview of what to see if we had the time. So, we arrive at the hotel at 2:45 and we have to rush through check-in and needless to say we are the last to arrive and have to find a seat amongst tables of people who have already been socailizing for the past days or hours! oy! So we take are seats and begin the 4 hour lecture--which doesn't seem that long until you remember that I have eaten since 4 a.m.! So after lots of lecturing we finally get released at which point I get to check-into my room and meet my roomie (not as cool as ewa!!!!) and finally get some food!!!! Roomie and me headed down and met up with a larger group as we all wandered around until we found a philly cheesesteak place at which point I said, "good enough for me" and headed in. It was delicious and was followed up by some gelatto. fantastic! After that, we all headed back and then my and another girl and two other guys decided to walk around and possibly look for some rechargable batteries/get a drink to toast my birthday. No rechargable batteries were found, but a cute bar was and we got drinks and played some pool. It was a good time and an overall great birthday. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! Lots of shots to be sure, which, of course, I'm a little excited about with my druggie past and all. Sending out lots of love from Philly!!!